The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-02-12

power OF Cnr1SUlan1Cy must be due TO
some principle which is peculiar to
Christianity. But the idea of hell is
widely diffused among the religions of
mankind, and among some of the vii
est superstitions it is a pronounced and
vigorous idea. Old Egypt had her
heaven and hell. The Brahmin relig-
ion has most elaborate conceptions of
future punishment, but 1 doubt if the
white-robed priests of the Nile or the
Gauges ever offered one prayer for the
salvation Of the whole human race.
On the other hand, look at the two mis-
sionary faiths which have hitherto
divided the world with Christianity.
Look at Mahometanism What sent
the armies of Islam from Mecca to Cor
dova? Was it the desire to secure the
infidel from eternal woe? Not at all.
But to proclaim the one true God and
his prophet. The mild evangelists of
Buddhism converted 300, 900, 900 of hu-
man beings to their creed. They never
said, s'the heather as a mass are going
down to eternal ruin" But they preach
ed, far more radically and unequivocally
than some Christian teachers do, that
character is salvation. They warned
their hearers of the direful sway of
sensual passion, of wrath, malice and
hypocrisy. They preached the brother
hood of man and the law of kindness to
every living thing.
"It is asserted that Christianity in
the past, has, in fact, owed its mission
airy activity to the belief that the heath
en- are damned. If this were true, the
missionary enterprise of the Church
ought to have been uninterrupted from
the first, whereas it has been notori-
ously spasmodic. But how is it about
the missions of modern times If the
doctrine Of damnation is the nerve of
missionary zeal, there is no reason why
Protestants should not have equalled
Rome in the ardor of propagandism
But the truth is that the propaganda
ing spirit Of Professionalism is modern.
At the close of the last century there
were but seven foreign missionary soci-
cites. To-day there are seventy such
societies with an income of many mil
lions, and the Episcopal church alone
English and American) has more than
1873 bishops and 5000 clergy in the very
midst of heathendom. Need 1 say that
this growth has been steadily contem-
poraneous with the rise of the human.
itarian spirit, with the softening of the
damnatory creed And of what sort
are the consecrated men and women
who do these things2 do not ask
what is the printed creed of. theil
churches, but what does the modern
missionary teach, preach, and believe
The missionaries whom 1 have known
have been large-hearted messengers Of
the love of God, teaching the pure and
simple truth of Jesus, going rather tt
the gospel than to the epistle for theil
converting word. How refreshing tc
turn from the creed bound consistency
of these theological veterans to the no
BILE testimony Of missionary hero like
David Livingstone. Poor She writes
of dead heather. My heart bleed'
for thee. But know thou wilt receive
no injustice where thou art gone. Shall
not the Judge of all the earth do right
leave thee to him.
1.-THE impulse of true missionary il
really nothing narrower than the in
spiration of the hero and lover of his
race, faith in God as the Father, anG
burning pity for the wrongs and suffer
ings of men. l have no fear that this
species Of conservation depends upor
those forms of cruel and irrational Greco
which are now dissolving in light
There will always be these successors
of the Crusaders and the Chevaliers
the imaginative and adventurous among
Christian souls, and there will be more
in the future than in the past.'